Army Faces Huge Recruiting Deficit

The Army has fallen 14% short of its recruiting goal for 2015. This is a huge problem simply given the fact that its only the third time in 20 years that the Army has missed its projections.

As the burdens of our military’s sacrifice falls on a smaller percentage of our population each year, a shrinking Army is a sign that this is only getting worse. deficit

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The top officer for recruiting, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow is blaming an improving economy for the slowdown:

“It is a challenging mission, and we’re not going to get around that, and there are indications that the economy is going to continue to improve. “

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To fill combat and support units, the Army needs 60,000 young recruits a year. However recruitment is lagging far behind, even though more resources have been provided.

No word yet on how their strategy will change but the government’s cuts to Army bonus and incentive packages isn’t helping.

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From USA Today:

WASHINGTON — The Army is nearly 14% short of the recruits it will need to fill its ranks, marking the first time in six years — and only the third in the last 20 — that it may fall short of its recruiting goal for the year.

The Army’s top officer for recruiting, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow, acknowledged in an interview with USA TODAY on Thursday the difficulties in attracting young men and women to the active-duty Army in an improving economy and the greater effort his recruiters are taking to find new soldiers.

“It is a challenging mission, and we’re not going to get around that,” Snow said. “And there are indications that the economy is going to continue to improve. ”